Are more and more Nigerians living abroad, returning home to access health facilities?
According to Nigeria’s Health Minister, the answer is an emphatic YES! Ali Pate made this known while briefing State House Correspondents about the approval by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to ratify the African Medicines Agency treaty.
The Minister also claimed that other Africans from the West African Sub Region were also availing themselves to Nigeria’s improved health care system.
Medical Tourism by Nigeria’s elite has been the vogue for decades. Their wealth gives them access to the best medical facilities in the US, the UK, France, Germany and India.
The truth is that, wherever they can find it, they will go for it.
That they can afford this very expensive but effective healthcare is the reason many Health watchers believe they have allowed Nigeria’s Health care facilities to become moribund if you’ll excuse the morbid pun.
Over the years, million and millions of Nigerians have died needless deaths because of our poor healthcare facilities. Hospitals and medical centres in Nigeria have deteriorated to mere diagnostic clinics.
Severe underfunding, inadequate infrastructure, a shortage of qualified medical personnel, and limited access to quality healthcare, particularly in rural areas, are still prevalent in Nigeria.
Only a very small percentage, about 5 percent of the national budget goes to health, in a country of 220 million.
Highly skilled medical professionals often leave Nigeria to work in developed countries due to better pay and working conditions, leaving a shortage of doctors and nurses within the country.
Rural populations continue to face significant challenges in accessing healthcare due to poor transportation, limited availability of healthcare facilities, and a lack of qualified healthcare workers.
Then there is the prohibitive costs.
Most Nigerians are forced to pay for healthcare, which can be unaffordable for many, especially in emergencies.
Then there is the biggest cancer of them all. Once again please excuse the morbid pun.
Corruption. This scourge within the healthcare system continues to further hinder the efficient allocation of resources and delivery of quality care.
But Minister Ali Pate says things are changing for better.
But is this really the case. The answer is yes -and no.
Yes because many Nigerians who have travelled abroad but are yet to attain citizenship in their new countries do come home for SOME medical treatments because of prohibitive costs abroad. For instance the In Vitro Fertilisation or IVF procedure can cost up to 13 thousand pounds in the UK, that’s about 24 point two million Naira in Nigeria. That same procedure if done in Nigeria, costs a fraction of that, about 5 million naira. So yes there is a financial incentive to do it in Nigeria.
On the other hand, is healhcare in Nigeria improving exponentially? The answer is an emphatic NO. Last year veteran Nigerian journalist Joy Osiagwu travelled from Canada to Nigeria for surgery, she died from complications resulting from the procedure. An example that the Minister’s words might not be entirely accurate.
But don’t take my word for it. We did a sampling to find out if Nigerians trust their countries healthcare system. The result was an emphatic NO.
Had the health minister made the latest statement to ordinary Nigerians and not journalists, he might have been told he was wrong.
Editor, Anoyoyo Ogiagboviogie
